It took about seven minutes minutes for Republic to bolt to a 2-0 lead at the end of the 1st half. It took two minutes for Willard to tie the game again at the start of the second half. And it took just an instant for Willard to end Republic’s season with a sudden-death overtime goal for a 4-3 win in the district semifinals at Republic Tuesday.
In a rough-and-tumble battle between closely matched teams, Willard overcame an early deficit––and three yellow cards––to advance to the district championship game.
In the first half, Dylan Brown put Republic on the board when he slid the ball past the advancing keeper into the left side of the goal with 7:32 remaining before halftime. The Tigers struck again when Drew Flippin scored with 18 seconds left.
But at halftime, coach Nathan Cardoza, filling in for head coach Kevin Hauck, whose wife is having a baby, warned the Tigers they’d need to pick up their intensity.
“Whenever you’re only two up, that’s nothing. If you come out lazy in the second half, that can change in an instant. I warned the boys that could change in two minutes, and that’s exactly what happened. They tied it up in two minutes,” Cardoza says.
Willard got two goals from Riley Young in the first 2 1/2 minutes of the half, then scored to take the lead on a Michael Warner goal with 13:08 remaining.
Republic struck back when Flippin took a cross from Mason Michaelis and powered it into the back of the net on a header to tie the game at 3-3. That’s where it stayed until Warner scored a goal for Willard about five minutes into overtime, ending Republic’s season.
The Tigers end their season with a 13-7 record. The loss ends the career of ten Republic seniors: Nate Hicks, Ross Berning, Manny Elivo, Ray Rosas, Mason Michaelis, Cody Marcotte, Jared Wininger, Colton Daniel, Alejandro Garcia, and the program’s all-time leading scorer, Julio Quezada.
Willard advances to play Carthage in the district finals at Republic Thursday night.